Simply Healthy

Here are some of our favorite recipes, made as we used to make them - very simple, quick, and easy.   They are great for times when you are under stress or time pressures or for the beginner cook.   Most of my 5 ingredient or less recipes used to involve meat, but these are all meat-free. 

Tips for simplifying soups and stews:

• Buy canned or frozen beans, low or no sodium
• Use lentils as a soup base (they cook much faster)
• Buy frozen vegetables to add to your soups
• Buy frozen greens to add to your soups
• Buy frozen, chopped onions & bell peppers to add to your soup.  These can be sold separately or as a cooking mix.  
• Buy minced garlic in the jar. 
• Use a store bought or make-your-own seasoning blend that works for all soups. Then, customizing the individual soup only takes 1 or 2 separate spices.   (See recipe below).
• Buy pre-chopped mushrooms
• Buy other fresh vegetables in the packaged produce section (as in, sno peas, shredded carrots, shredded broccoli slaw, and so on)
• Buy jarred tomatoes or tubes of tomato paste. 

STOCK:
All about stock -  you can use a canned vegetable stock or a vegetable juice base like carrots, or you can make your own.   Now, this one won't be as fast as opening a can, but the taste doesn't compare either.    A very simple way to make stock is to heat a teaspoon of oil or a half cup of water in a sauté pan, then add chopped onions, bell peppers, garlic, and mushrooms to it.  Let it simmer while you gather your other soup ingredients.   You'll know it's ready by its aroma and by the onions turning translucent.   You can make it as you make the soup or make it in advance and freeze in individual portions (approximately 1-2 cups of the mix per batch of soup).    ALL of my soups start the same way – heating the onions, mushrooms, garlic and so on in a pan.   It’s a running joke around here that I get those things going in the pan even before I know what I’m cooking.   If you use canned or jarred stock or juice, you can skip the sauté step if you want and just add the ingredients in blue to the soup, but I'll say it's usually always worth taking the few minutes to sauté. 

Seasoning blends – ours has equal parts black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika, and a 1/4^th portion of cayenne and/or crushed red pepper.    Make your own, store it and save lots of time when you cook. 

Black Bean Chili, Simplified 

http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/09/black-bean-chili.html

Really, this chili can be made from any bean you have or any combination of beans.   Many times, we've popped in the three leftover cans of navy, pinto, and black beans to scrounge up a batch of chili.  

3 Sisters Stew

http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/10/three-sisters-harvest-soup.html

Quick Lentil Soup

http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/10/quick-soup-healthy-soup.html

Split Pea and Carrot Soup

http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/10/split-peas-and-carrots-soup.html

Cheezy Kale Soup

http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2013/01/cheezy-kale-soup.html

Other simple meals:

Vegetable fajitas   http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/08/veggie-fajitas.html

Rice bowls   http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2013/03/rice-bowls.html

Lettuce bundles -  http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/08/lettuce-bundles.html

Pasta with hidden vegetables - http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2013/02/kid-friendly-pasta-with-hidden-goodness.html

Breakfast – Apple Pie Oatmeal http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2013/02/apple-pie-oatmeal.html

Baked goods – health nut cookies http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2013/03/health-nut-cookie-bars.html

or banana bread http://plantbites.blogspot.com/2012/09/banana-bread.html

Rice Bowls

Another quick and easy favorite family dinner.


Ingredients

1/2 large onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1/3 pound mushrooms

1 bag of broccoli, carrot, cabbage slaw
1 bag frozen stir fry vegetables or other vegetable
1 cup chopped greens, any

Optional, baked or pan cooked tofu slices

Brown rice, 2 cups cooked
Seasonings, pepper, garlic powder, ginger, soy sauce, to taste.

Sauté the onions, garlic, and mushrooms, and slaw in a tsp of olive oil or 1/2 cup water until onions are translucent.   Add another 1/2 cup of water and the frozen vegetables and greens.  Continue cooking until frozen vegetables are defrosted.













Add seasonings to taste and toss with cooked brown rice.

Broccoli and Rice, made over

A very old family favorite was the broccoli and rice casserole, reminescent of the Cream of Mushroom Soup version.   Even before our eating style changed, we made the dish healthier without the soup, just with sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic in a creamy sauce and with extra vegetables joining the broccoli (asparagus, sno peas, carrots, etc).   

This newest version was a big hit yesterday -


Ingredients:

Frozen or fresh broccoli, steamed
optional, Frozen or fresh other vegetables - sno peas, asparagus, stir fry mix, carrots, steamed
Cooked brown rice or wild rice
Sauce, recipe HERE 

Toss cooked vegetables with sauce



You could just stop here, grab a fork, and eat.  Which is just what I did.

Or, you can keep going and serve over rice.  It would also work over pasta or even a bed of greens. 

Apple Pie Oatmeal

After learning about the extrusion process performed on cereal grains, we made our own granola for our son to eat cold as he is not a fan of cooked oatmeal.    Those that know him will know that "not a fan" means none will cross his lips.  

Thankfully, those days are gone as he's now eating hot oatmeal for breakfast nearly every morning, and this little puppy is what induced him to do so.   Between the name and the taste, you can't go wrong. 


Apple Pie Oatmeal:

1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal (we use old fashioned or quick cooking, not instant)
1 cup water

1 large apple, shredded (if not organic, peel first)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp honey
2 tablespoons, heaping, of raisins
1 heaping tablespoon of crushed walnuts (finely crushed, in our case)
Optional - add a splash of plant or nut milk

Cook the oatmeal per package directions.   Add the other ingredients, stir in, and serve.   We do our oats in the microwave, it takes 2-3 minutes to cook and the other ingredients are assembled, chopped and cleaned up by the time the oats are ready.  

A few views of various attempts.  The second photo was an attempt at chunks of walnuts, whose rejection resulted in photo #3 where the walnuts were crushed into powder.  

A Healthy Sandwich for the Little Ones and Not So Little Ones

I'm as surprised as anyone that he will now eat these sandwiches, and the one below is our latest update.   The key, I think, is making it attractive and tasty.


Ingredients:

• Whole grain or your other favorite bread or wrap
• Lettuce - we started with iceburg for its mild flavor, then moved on to romaine or fresh spinach
• Cabbage - either the sweet, white kind or the red/purple one, both went over well
• Tomatoes - fresh, sliced
• Spread - we started with mustard but have now combined avocado, which he hates, with mustard and seasonings.  He never noticed the avocado, didn't mind when I told him, so I've gradually increased the avocado to mustard ratio. 

This is a shot of our first attempt; it has a little skim mozzarella cheese, finely shredded version because it looks like more than it is and goes further, as a bit of an enticement to try the sandwich.   None of our later attempts included it and he never noticed it missing.  Sneaky mom, 1 point. 

 

A funny note about the picture.   I only made a half sandwich because I didn't want to waste the bread if he didn't like it.   He brought back the plate and asked for the other half, then asked me to write down the ingredients for it, post them on the fridge, so that he could make it whenever he wanted.  A roaring success. 

Green Monster Smoothie #1

Our usual smoothie has fresh spinach in it, but these are our attempt at something different.   Everyone was nervous, but the taste was the same as the prior ones.    The greens are very mild and most of the taste is strawberries & bananas.


Ingredients, per serving:

Splash of almond milk
1/2 banana (frozen or fresh)
4 large strawberries (frozen or fresh)
1/4 - 1/3 cup frozen collard greens (or fresh)
Optional - 1 tsp flax (ground) or chia seeds
Optional - ice
Optional - splash of vanilla flavoring

Blend the fresh bananas and almond milk first, then add greens.  If using frozen bananas, blend the milk and greens first to make sure you don't end up with chunks of frozen greens.    Then add in the frozen items and finish blending. 

It even passed the 8 year old's yuck test.  

UPDATE:   Apparently, frozen greens are not ready-to-eat, so you'll need to cook these before using.    Either wash and freeze fresh greens, or cook the frozen ones and re-freeze them before using, to avoid bacterial contamination. 

Veggie Fajitas

Our first week as Nutritarians, we were out of town and had to find a Veggie Friendly place to eat.  We happened upon a chain Mexican restaurant but were afraid of what we'd find in the heart of East Texas, land of the beef & BBQ crowd.   Nervously, we told the waiter what we wanted, and he and the chef produced an amazing assortment of vegetable fajitas.   Not just the standard onions and peppers, we had carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, and more.   

Now, this is one of our favorite meals.  It's easy to prepare and we don't miss the beef (much!). 


Veggie Fajitas

Slice the vegetables you have on hand such as:

Onions
Bell Peppers
Scallions
Cauliflower
Carrots (matchsticks)
Green Beans
Squash (yellow, zucchini, etc.)
and so on

Heat 1 tsp of olive oil (optional - could just use a bit of water) and toss the veggies in to cook on medium/low.   Meanwhile, heat some fresh corn tortillas in the microwave, in the oven, or on the grill.    Serve with black or "refried" (mashed) pinto beans, fresh avocado, and salsa.  

Lettuce Bundles

Romaine lettuce wraps are super easy, low cal, and very convenient.    The possiblities for the insides are great - from a peanut butter, banana, and honey breakfast wrap to these spicy black bean bundles.  


Black Bean Bundles

Wash a few romaine leaves and pat dry with a clean cloth. 

Fill with black beans (spiced with pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne), black olives, tomatoes, and fresh avocado slices.